When Marvin Shanken, founder of M. Shanken Communications, launched Cigar Aficionado in 1992, people thought he had lost his mind. Cigarettes were the most popular form of smoking and tolerance for tobacco was at its lowest point ever. Since then, the single-interest niche publication about cigars has turned into a men’s luxury lifestyle magazine with almost 300,000 subscribers and a total audience of over 1.8 million readers per issue. The magazine is given much credit to sparking a great resurgence in cigar popularity throughout the 1990s. Its motto? “The Goodlife Magazine for Men.” Cigars are the foundational talking point in Cigar Aficionado. The magazine prides itself on being the number one authority on cigar reviews, cigar tips and tricks, and cigar culture. Unsure about whether to store your cigars in 74% or 75% humidity? They’ve done the research, it’s 75%. Craving a light smoke with a hint of alfalfa in the morning? They found the perfect breakfast blend, a Gispert Lonsdale. Since its inception, …show more content…
Cigar Aficionado has limited itself less and less to just tobacco. The publication frequently ties in beverages, travel, sports, fashion, golf and other interests of its “smart, savvy and discerning readers.” Affluent men can read about whether a Rocky Patel Royal Toro or a Cohiba Esplendido (cigar brands) goes best with a glass of Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky while aboard an 80 foot Ferretti yacht off the coast of Monaco. With a subscriber median household income of about $100,000, only those on the upper end of the spectrum may relate to such pieces. The less affluent readership can only wish they were fortunate enough to have yacht related debacles. According to Cigar Aficionado’s media kit, 77% of their 1.8 million readers are male. The median reader age is 45 years old, with a 73% college attendance rate, and 44% of readers being in a managerial, professional position at work. Cigar Aficionado boasts the highest median household income over all competitive men’s magazines. In recent years, Subscribers have criticized Cigar Aficionado for its movement away from quality cigar reviews and more towards lifestyle pieces. Luxury companies like Porsche, Ferrari, Tag Huer, and Rolex have been growing their presence within the magazine. Men who seek advice about $10 - $20 cigars are instead exposed to $20,000 watch ads and articles debating whether Robert de Niro played a better cigar-smoking role in Raging Bull or in The Untouchables. This seems to be the direction the Cigar Aficionado wishes to go. Shanken told Advertising Age, “This magazine's potential can be converted into a larger readership if non-smokers understand it to be a true lifestyle magazine for affluent men.” Cigar Aficionado fits perfectly into parent company M.
Shanken Communications Inc.’s portfolio of publications. The company strives to cater to the interests and hobbies of the affluent members of society. In addition to Cigar Aficionado, the company publishes Wine Spectator, Whiskey Advocate, Market Watch, and Impact. Wine Spectator and Whiskey Advocate offer reviews of wine and whiskey, respectively, in addition to pieces on travel, fine dining, other interests of the affluent. Market Watch and Impact are business oriented publications that write about market trend predictions within the alcoholic beverages universe. Being a private company, there is little information available about M. Shanken Communications Inc.’s size and profitability. The most recent figures from the 43-year-old company are from 2000, when they had 150 employees and yearly sales of $31.2 million. Both of those numbers have most likely grown considerably since
then. Anyone who thinks they are sophisticated enough to write a piece that caters to the interests of Cigar Aficionado’s highbrow following must send a query to the executive editor, David Savona, at dsavona@mshanken.com. Since expenses are covered by the magazine, you could potentially get a free trip with some free cigars out of the assignment if they like your idea. Manuscripts are published 3 to 6 months after acceptance. Cigar Aficionado does not publicize how much they pay for freelance written pieces. Fret not, if your piece doesn’t live up to the requirements necessary to entertain the upper-echelon of society’s men, Cigar Aficionado offers a 25% kill fee for your time.
In the 1946 advertisement, Reynolds had the results of a survey that the company had conducted using three different research organizations. On the advertisement it stated, “Doctors in every branch of medicine-113,597 in all- were queried in a nationwide study of cigarette preference… The brand named most was Camel.” Although, as it turns out the surveys were actually fixed, it still gives the viewer a fact to h...
Stephen King’s short story "Quitters, Inc." involves a smoker trying to kick the habit, and getting results no matter the means. Dick Morrison meets Jimmy McCann, an old friend, in the bar of the Kennedy International airport. McCann has stopped smoking, gained a promotion, and become physically fir since the last time they met. He tells Morrison about an agency that helped him quit smoking and gave him a business card for Quitters, Inc., which Morrison just put in his wallet. A month later he sees the card fall out of his wallet and decides to go see them. Upon going to Quitters, Inc., Morrison meets Vic Donatti, the man in charge of his case. Morrison signs a contract saying that he won’t reveal anything they do in the course of his treatment. Donatti tells Morrison that he will never smoke again after that day. When he goes back for his next appointment, Donatti starts by punching the cigarettes Morrison had on him whilst still smiling. Donatti then reveals how much they know about their clients by referencing Morrison’s handicapped son who he told them nothing about. Donatti tells him that he is a pragmatist, or someone who is oriented towards the success or failure of something through practical means. Donatti shows Morrison that a rabbit can be taught that eating food will cause an electric shock to occur and therefore after enough aversion training the rabbit will starve itself to avoid the shock. Donatti then explains the various ways they discipline their clients for slipping up, the tenth and last being death. They guarantee you won’t ever smoke again. After a series of non-smoking, Morrison slips up, his wife is kidnapped, and he is called in to watch her get electrocuted for thirty seconds. Afterwards she tells him that she understands what they are trying to do. After months of not smoking Morrison gains weight and Donatti says that if he can’t lose it they will cut off his wife’s pinky finger. After that Morrison passes on the Quitters, Inc business card to a man known only as Crony, and tells him they changed his life. Years later Morrison and his wife meet McCann and his wife at a theatre. When he shakes the hand of McCann’s wife he notices something is wrong. Later the realization hits him that she only had four fingers; her pinky was missing.
There is little to no mention of any statistics that might show when, and thereby, why, cigarette smoking gained popularity. The author also fails to provide cultural context in many areas. Alleged masculine values in America are presented as fact, when there is no evidence, aside from the author’s word, that this is true. The arguments would be much stronger had the author successfully differentiated between correlation and causation. At times, the article is unbalanced, such as the argument surrounding post-World War Two advertising. Within the article, it is unproven that there was a spike in cigarette smoking in men. It was also unproven that the advertisements had an effect. The article ignores the possibility that the increase in smoking among men was merely a consequence of reaching a few opinion leaders. As cigarettes are such an addictive product, simple curiosity in the privacy of one’s home may have turned some men into smokers.
Sloan Wilson did not publish The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, a classic on 1950's middle-class conformity, until 1955. But, by July 1953, PALL MALL cigarette advertisers appear aware that "society seemed to reward those who lacked rough edges and eschewed eccentricity" (Blum 794). This conclusion seems justified by a TIME magazine advertisement. Here, these promoters apply this conformity principle and other advertising techniques to a specific socioeconomic group. They seek to lure the expanding male, middle-class audience by presenting indecorous fun, an enticing social situation, and smooth smoking delight all stemming from their product.
Laird, Pamela, “Consuming Smoke: Cigarettes in American Culture.” University of Colorado at Denver. Author of Advertising Progress: American Business and the Rise of Consumer Marketing. 1998
Over the last 50 years, smoking and the public image of smoking has changed dramatically. Americans have learned the harmful effects of smoking and have put a heavy disdain on the use of it. The number of new smokers has drastically dropped over the years and many that had previously smoked have stopped. Some have turned to electronic cigarettes as a safer way to intake nicotine. Over the years, smoking advertisements have changed drastically. Nowadays, tobacco advertisements are virtually non-existent in our society, but when they were abundant they depicted smoking as a cool and sophisticated activity. Today, smoking advertisements are shown by electronic cigarette companies. These companies emphasize the healthier lifestyle these products
While todays major tobacco producers deny that they market to the youth. However, we still see them subliminally targeting children through magazine advertisements, store posters, and Internet ads. In addition, they continue to use product placement strategies in mov...
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New York, NY: Bantam Books, 2007. Print. The. Flatley, Marie, Kathryn Rentz, and Paula Lentz. Business Communication.
One cigarette can contain 8mg of nicotine to 20mg (How much Nicotine). Thompson Jr. and The Daily Currant use rhetorical strategies as a way to say, although nicotine is addicting, alternatives can have a negative effect as well. These alternatives can be just as addicting as nicotine, “In fact herbal cigarettes are as harmful as tobacco cigarettes, because any vegetable matter that’s burned produces tar, carbon monoxide, and other toxins” and on top of being addicting are required by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to carry a warning that herbal cigarettes are harmful to health (Are Herbal and ‘Natural’ Cigarettes safer?). Vitarettes (vitamin infused cigarettes) states that “Branding an unhealthy product as healthy by adding small amounts of vitamins has worked wonders for sugar-water purveyor Vitamin Water, and Phillip Morris hopes it too can capture some of that Magic.” (The Daily Currant) showing that, just by adding different alternative they may appear healthy and might be healthy, but it does not cancel out the harmful substances that are still in a product. The authors are making the argument that alternatives for nicotine can only slow down the process of blackened lungs, not stop
Electronic cigarettes or “e-cigs” were made to resemble the taste and feeling that a tobacco cigarette gi...
Each year 440,000 people die, in the United States alone, from the effects of cigarette smoking (American Cancer Society, 2004). As discussed by Scheraga & Calfee (1996) as early as the 1950’s the U.S. government has utilized several methods to curb the incidence of smoking, from fear advertising to published health warnings. Kao & Tremblay (1988) and Tremblay & Tremblay (1995) agreed that these early interventions by the U.S. government were instrumental in the diminution of the national demand for cigarettes in the United States. In more recent years, state governments have joined in the battle against smoking by introducing antismoking regulations.
Marlboro is currently one of biggest cigarette distributer in the world. Originally, Marlboro was targeted towards women with the slogan “Mild As May” Campaign until Philip Morris repositioned Marlboro at 1950, with the objective of attracting a wide target audience of American men to save their failing brand. The company began to advertise towards men because they wanted to increase customer while hoping to increase their profits. Therefore, in order to attract their targeted audience, Leo Burnett took the initiative to design the new brand image in which they use an American symbol, the cowboy. The Marlboro Man campaign was not successful merely because of the cigarettes that it advertised but instead, “Marlboro Man” represented the ways in which white males defined their status in American society. The “Marlboro Man” transformed from an advertising campaign to a representation of white American men.
The tobacco industry has developed a rather large array of products. Companies such as Philip Morris, Lorillard, RJ Reynolds, and Brown and Williamson, as well as the other smaller competitors, all provide the same product- cigarettes. The tobacco industry is filled with fierce competitors. But underneath the brand names and images, the product is relatively the same. All tobacco companies produce an inhalant that is made with tobacco, tar, and nicotine. These materials are rolled in a special kind of slow-burning paper for longer smoking time.
charged with covering up the addictive properties of nicotine and finding ways to exploit it to increase profits. For example, in Wigand’s interview for 60 Minutes, he says that tobacco companies view cigarettes only as a delivery device for nicotine. He also says they take advantage of the addictive properties by manipulating and adj...